Understanding the Electoral College

[Keith Broaders]

To understand the reasons for the establishment of the Electoral College it is necessary to understand that the Articles of Confederation did not create a nation ,it created a union of states. Each of the 13 states were recognized in the Treaty of Paris as independent sovereign countries.

When the representatives of the states met in Philadelphia in 1787 their goal was not to create a new nation, it was to create a more perfect union. Each state already had its own government and their own Constitution.

The states delegated to the government of the united States a short list of enumerated and all powers not delegated were reserved to the states and to the people.

Having experienced the tyranny of a monarch, the founders want to create a government where the power would be vested in the hands of representatives of the people. 

The founders feared that democracy would lead to tyranny and that the government should be based on the rule of law rather than the will of the majority.

They believed that the President should be elected by representatives of the states rather than by the people at large. Instead of having s single election, they wanted each state to conduct their own election.  

Each state had the authority to select the method for choosing Presidential Electors who would vote for and in behalf of the people. The number of electors was to be equal the number of the state's Congressional Representatives 

Electoral college selection

The Constitution, in Article II, Section 1, provided that the state legislatures should decide the manner in which their Electors were chosen. Different state legislatures chose different methods:^[8]

Method of choosing electors	State(s)
electors appointed by state legislature	Connecticut Georgia New Jersey New York(a) South Carolina
two electors appointed by state legislature each remaining elector chosen by state legislature from top two candidates in each U. S. House district	Massachusetts
each elector chosen by voters statewide; however, if no candidate wins majority, state legislature appoints electors from top ten candidates	New Hampshire
state divided into electoral districts, with one elector chosen per district by the voters of that district	Virginia(b) Delaware
electors chosen at large by voters	Maryland Pennsylvania
state had not yet ratified the Constitution	North Carolina Rhode Island

[Keith Broaders]